Old bullet casings

[Texas Yankee]

I found these in an old ghost town last week... Any help ID'g them will be greatly appreciated.

 

[flatbutton]

Lot of good stuff T.Y. I'm not an expert, but i'm thinking turn of the century, + or - a few years. Winchester repeating arms ( WRA) Union metallic cartridge (UMC) not sure about USC. Looks like old west cowboy ammo. Pretty cool, congrats!

 

[Texas Yankee]

Thanks Mr. B!
I was down by your neck of the wood a few weeks ago. I drove my son to Camp Lejeune and loved the scenery. We stopped and visited with a friend in Atlanta on our way to NC. The entire trip I all I kept thinking was "I wished I had my MD with me." We were there for a night and flew back in the morning. Left El Paso in the evening on Monday and was back home Thursday afternoon.

 

[Off n On]

Nice finds!

I found these in an old ghost town last week... Any help ID'g them will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for that I didn't know about the older casings.

 

[flatbutton]

Thanks Mr. B!
I was down by your neck of the wood a few weeks ago. I drove my son to Camp Lejeune and loved the scenery. We stopped and visited with a friend in Atlanta on our way to NC. The entire trip I all I kept thinking was "I wished I had my MD with me." We were there for a night and flew back in the morning. Left El Paso in the evening on Monday and was back home Thursday afternoon.

PM me the next time you are in the area, maybe we can hook up and swap lies! I live just outside MCAS Cherry Point.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Texas Yankee, as Mr.b already said, WRA Co. is the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Although it was formed in 1866, it didn't start marking its cartridge-casings until the early-1880s. It went bankrupt in 1931, but was purchased in 1935 by the Western Cartridge Company, which was then re-named the Winchester-Western company.

As Mr.b also said, UMC is the Union Metallic Cartridge Company. Formed in 1867, it too did not start marking its casings with the letters UMC until the early-1880s. It merged with the Winchester company in 1910, resulting in casings marked REM-UMC. So, your casings saying only UMC were made before that year.

USC is the United States Cartridge Company. It was founded in 1869, but like WRA and UMC, it did not mark its casings until the 1880s. It was absorbed by the Winchester company in 1924.

So, none of your marked casings are from earlier than approximately 1880. Some of them can be time-dated by the manufacturer's lifespan in business, and other by the caliber of the cartridge. For example, your casing marked "30-30" first came into existence in 1895.
.30-30 Winchester - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The casing marked "44 WCF" means it is for .44-caliber Winchester Model-1873 rifle, and Winchester Center Fire refers to the type of primer in the casing's base -- the little copper "button" (which is actually a copper cup) in the center of the casing's base. Remember, although that rifle was introduced in 1873, casings were not marked until the 1880s.

The one marked "45-60 WCF" means .45-caliber Winchester Model-1876 rifle, 60 grains (weight) of gunpowder in the casing.

The one marked "UMC SH 38S&W" means a Solid-Head casing for the .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver.

Your large-caliber casings which are unmarked but have a center-fire primer date from before the 1880s but no earlier than 1868, when that form of primer was invented and patented by Hiram Berdan.

In summary, your marked casings date from the early-1880s through 1910, or 1924, or 1931, depending on the manufacturer and the time-period of the firearm they were made for use in.

There's a wise old maxim which says "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime." So, I'm going to let you have some fun figuring out the others (and time-dating them) by studying the information at the following webpage, like I've been doing for years:
THE CARTRIDGE COLLECTOR

 

[Texas Yankee]

Wow! Thank you so much CBG! I will do my research with the info you provided. My mind goes wild thinking of the history behind these casings and who held them. I wonder if any were meant to defend themselves from bandits or Indians.

And Mr. B, I will definitely PM then next time I make it out your way so we can swap some lies lol.

HH,
Texas Yankee